Froch v Groves 2: Grudge-ridden title fight will be up close and personal

Needle match: at the first fight between Carl Froch and George Groves in Manchester the referee stopped the bout prematurely in Froch’s favour during the ninth round

Unfinished business? Baby, you ain’t kidding.

In case you hadn’t noticed, Carl Froch and George Groves meet at Wembley Stadium tomorrow night in a WBA and IBF world super-middleweight title fight — their second inside six months.

It is billed as the biggest British fight in history — based on projected attendance (Wembley’s 80,000-odd seats sold out in minutes) and monetary gain (Froch, as defending champ, will earn about £8m). Is it the most important domestic fight of all time? The most grudge-ridden? The most interesting? That would be generous. But even if we factor in the boxing game’s addiction to hyperbole, Froch-Groves II is still a hell of a thing.

In the disgruntled corner sits Froch, who at 36 is the grand old man of British boxing, someone whose career more than stands comparison with those of his celebrated, now retired, contemporaries Ricky Hatton and Joe Calzaghe. Tough, gruff and difficult to love, Froch has been rattled as never before during the past six months.

The irritant sits opposite him, in the naughty corner: Groves is a decade younger and a different sort of fighter altogether. Superficially he is all cartoon tattoos and Jack-the-lad front; deeper down he is at least as single-minded as Froch, a deceptively brilliant athlete and a strategic, business-minded boxer who is cut from similar cloth to his former manager-trainer Adam Booth, from whom he split in the run-up to his first fight with Froch last November.

Fizzing between Froch and Groves is genuine disdain, contempt and bad blood, begun by Groves’s cocky and dismissive attitude during the promotion of their last bout, worsened by the humiliation he laid on Froch by putting him on his backside during the devastating early rounds of that contest and made permanent by the unsatisfactory way in which the fight ended – stopped prematurely by the referee Howard Foster, who awarded Froch a TKO in the ninth round.

That intervention — made in the right spirit but at the wrong moment — had the confounding effect of casting Groves as the hero robbed and Froch as a phoney champ, saved from defeat by the referee. Froch’s slightly graceless attitude after his victory did not help to alter that perception.

It would not have been Froch’s choice ever to repeat his experience of fighting Groves but he could hardly turn down the vast payday or the chance to avenge his wounded pride. He is in great physical condition and appears more mentally together than last time.

Five of the best British fights

Five of the best British fights

1/5
Jimmy Wilde v George Clarke (London, 1917)

Welshman Wilde became the first world flyweight champion by beating Young Zulu Kid at the Holborn Stadium in 1916. His first defence was against Clarke, whom he had beaten before. The 20-round fight lasted only four rounds before the referee stepped in.

2/5
Henry Cooper v Joe Bugner (London, 1971)

A 15-round points loss in front of a Wembley crowd marked the end of the road for Cooper. It was a deeply controversial fight, awarded to the defensive but accurate Bugner by a quarter-point. Many still feel that Cooper should have won.

3/5
Nigel Benn v Chris Eubank (Birmingham 1990, Manchester, 1993)

Perhaps the most famous grudge match in British boxing. The first fight, for the WBO middleweight title, was a brutal affair, won by Eubank on a TKO in the ninth. The rematch, to unify the super-middleweight title, was less dramatic and was drawn.

4/5
Frank Bruno v Lennox Lewis (Cardiff, 1993)

An ageing Bruno met a rising Lewis for the younger man’s WBC title: it was the first time two Brits had met for a world heavyweight belt. Bruno had the better start, but was caught several times in the seventh and the referee stopped the fight.

5/5
David Haye v Enzo Maccarinelli (London, 2008)

An all-British unification fight for the world cruiserweight titles was fought in the dead of night at the O2 to suit American TV. Haye produced his definitive cruiserweight performance, stopping the Welshman inside two rounds.

Groves, meanwhile, seems to be doing what he does best: annoying, goading, making grand predictions of a third-round knockout and letting the fight sell itself. His self-assurance is remarkable. But then, perhaps it should be. He knows he can hurt Froch. He knows he is the crowd’s favourite. He has had proper time to work with his new trainer, Paddy Fitzgerald, whom he took on only nine weeks before the last bout.

And most of all, he knows that if he beats Froch then the world stretches gloriously out before him. Because this fight isn’t just personal — in a sense it determines the future for both fighters. Both have discussed victory at Wembley as a gateway to the real big time: a top-of-the-bill fight in Las Vegas.

For Froch a show-topper in Vegas would most likely be the full-stop — or perhaps the exclamation mark — to end a terrific career. One last payday and farewell. There would be several possibilities for the big goodbye: a long-anticipated match against Julio Cesar Chavez Jr; a rematch with Andre Ward (who beat Froch comprehensively in 2012); or the conclusion to a trilogy of fights against Mikkel Kessler.

The last of these would be the safest bet for Froch — although it is doubtful whether the two could parlay their rivalry up to fill a casino on the Nevada strip. Perhaps a freak-show payday at a catchweight against Bernard Hopkins would be the way for him to bow out.

For Groves, the future is just as exciting. Beat Froch and he can fight who he likes. Win or lose, he has the faith of his new German promoters Sauerland, who signed him last week, and who also manage potential opponents in Kessler and Arthur Abraham.

Besides Kessler, Ward and Chavez Jr, there is also James DeGale — one of the few men with whom Groves actually has a worse relationship than with Froch. DeGale fights Brandon Gonzales on the undercard at Wembley and could be in the frame for another big all-British fight against tomorrow’s winner (or, indeed, loser).

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. What matters today is 12 rounds of —okay, then — the biggest all-British world title fight for at least 20 years: a match that pitches sparky London cheek against grouchy Midlands pride; a contest between speed and obduracy; a match of contrasting styles and incompatible characters.

My call? Froch is clearly taking the reprise of this fight more seriously than the first edition, but he is also six months further into a faint but noticeable decline. Groves is faster, younger, more confident, more settled and six months further into what is a pretty sharp ascent.

His impudent talk of knocking Froch out within three rounds would be a shock, and probably a shock too far. Instead, I back Groves to get the best of a blazing first four rounds, before the fight slows down, with Groves boxing smarter, withstanding a late Froch barrage and crossing the line to claim a narrow points decision.

But even if I’m wholly wrong — and this has been known to happen — it’s going to be a cracker.